The Push-Pull of the Food Movement

A quiet revolution is bringing wholesome, farm-grown food to the American plate

Anna Lapp? Conscious Choice

| December 4, 2003

Shop at a typical American supermarket and you're likely to come
away with a cart of fatty, genetically modified products produced
by one of ten mega-corporations. In fact, at least a dollar out of
every ten you spend will likely go to only one of these corporate
giants: Altria, the renamed Phillip Morris. Consider these
corporations' political clout, and the problem of the
ever-expanding American waistline and you might begin to despair
for the state of U.S. food today. However, according to Anna Lapp?
there is a quietly growing counter-revolution that is increasingly
making farmers' markets, organic produce, and healthy eating a
mainstream option.

'In dozens of U.S. cities people are re-building local food
networks, from Slow Fooders preserving artisanal cheeses to hip-hop
activists mixing up environmental justice and food democracy,' says
Lapp?, co-author of Hope's Edge: The Next Diet for a Small
Planet and co-founder of the Small Planet Fund.

Although the signs of this counterrevolution aren't as
ubiquitous as corporate agribusiness' looming presence, they are
there, waiting for more consumers to notice and choose them. For
instance, the presence of farmers' markets has increased by 79
percent in the U.S. Similarly, community-supported agriculture
programs (CSA), which allow non-farmers to invest directly in a
local farm in exchange for weekly shares of fresh produce, number
more than 1,000 in the states.

'I'm not going to argue we'll see change overnight or that
Wal-Mart will go away anytime soon,' says Lapp?. 'But we also must
believe our eyes, ears, and taste buds, as our society heads in two
directions at once, we can choose. We can turn in the direction of
hope, choosing a path that is healthy for ourselves and our planet.
Each of us has that power.'
-- Erica Wetter